


Names

by Trefoil_9



Series: Undertale Flash Fictions [8]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dadster, Domestic Fluff, Family, Fluff, Gaster Makes Puns, Gen, Papyrus and Spaghetti, Sans Makes Puns, Sort Of, That's what this is about they basically adopt the technically-non-dadster as their Dadster, W. D. Gaster is not related to Skelebros, dad jokes, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 06:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11984082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trefoil_9/pseuds/Trefoil_9
Summary: Papyrus accidentally calls Gaster dad. Gaster is pleased. Sans, of course, does his darndest to make it weird. [AmberTale affiliated. For prompt.]





	Names

“It’s very important that you stir the pasta after putting it in the water,” said Gaster over to shoulder to Papyrus, “Otherwise it’ll all stick together and then you’ll have a pasta cake instead of pasta strands, and that’s not as good because pasta cake doesn’t cook very thoroughly and it’ll be crunchy in the middle.”   
“THAT SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD ACTUALLY?”   
“Um, OK, we could try that later? For now we’re just making normal pasta.”   
“NORMAL PASTA IS GOOD!”   
“I agree.”   
“But,” said Sans, popping up between them, “It’s good to know that the pasta-bilities are endless.”   
“SANS.”   
Papyrus gave him a disappointed look. Gaster snorted.   
“DON’T ENCOURAGE HIM!” Papyrus shouted.

Gaster had been spending a lot of time at their house recently, often sleeping on the couch with a spare blanket and making breakfast for all of them in the morning before he left with Sans for the lab. Papyrus was liking the extra company. He said it made up for how quiet it was during the day, with Sans not around. Gaster fit in well, Sans thought; he was always a good audience for Papyrus’ excited tales of what had happened during his day on guard duty, and he could cook much better than either of the brothers. It was a nice change, eating a meal at home and having it be edible.

“SO THIS IS ENOUGH GARLIC?”   
“Oh! Yes. Less than that, even. I know I said you can never have too much garlic but that was, uh, for other things. We’re not actually cooking the garlic when we make pesto, so the taste is a lot sharper, and it’s easier to have too much of it.”   
Papyrus frowned, processing this.   
“THAT MAKES SENSE. I WILL BE CAREFUL TO BALANCE THE SHARP GARLIC TASTE TO PERFECTION!”   
“There you go.”   
“Yeah,” said Sans, peering over the edge of the counter, “don’t let that garlic make a pest-o itself.”   
“SANS WHY!”   
“I can’t help myself. I’m a natural.”   
“YOU’RE INSUFFERABLE, THAT’S WHAT YOU ARE.”   
Sans finger gunned at him from where he’d moved across the kitchen.   
“You’d better bay-leaf-it.”   
“STOP!!”   
Gaster walked over with the next ingredient for the pesto sauce, a bottle of oil.   
“Is this olive oil? No, of course not. But olive you both a lot, anyway.”   
Sans extended the finger guns to Gaster with a proud   
“Ayyyyy!” And Papryus flung up his arms in dismay.   
“DAAAAAD!”   
Gaster laughed, Sans laughed. Papyrus went back to peeling garlic while Sans wondered if he’d meant to call Gaster dad or if had just been a slip, and if it had been a slip, then what (if anything?) had inspired it. It wasn’t a terribly weird thought actually, he seemed like a member of the family already. Sans wouldn’t mind having Gaster as his dad, actually, if he could get past the weirdness of his boss also being his dad. Though, he had already gotten used to his boss having sleepovers on his couch and making him waffles in the morning before work, so this wasn’t really a jump at all, except in name.

The pasta just needed to finish cooking. Gaster had told Papyrus it would probably be ten minutes, but he was still hanging over the boiling water. Gaster had disappeared. Sans thought that was weird.

Grillby’s was still full with the evening rush, but Grillbz himself was having a moment to rest, as everyone currently in the building already had their food. All at once the door swung wildly open and a ridiculously tall skeleton staggered in, black coat flecked with snow. He clawed for the door, slammed it shut, and weaved across the room, narrowly evading tables, until he reached the bar.   
“GrillbzasdfjeaPapyrusjustcalledmedadaaaa”   
Grillbz stuck his arm out and stopped Gaster with a hand in his face.   
“.stop.breathe.Papyrus what now?”   
“He called me dad!”   
“.oh boy.that’s awkward.”   
“No it isn’t it’s great! I’m so happy they like me!”   
“…ok good.”   
“I mean I know they like me but like. I was always kinda wondering if I was in the way or not, I mean, I’m not actually part of the family but I end up around them so much but it’s so great Papyrus does think of me like family and I’m so happy! Oh, I wonder if Sans feels the same way? I don’t know, I hope he does.”   
“.stay there,” muttered Grillbz, walking to the back.   
There was a snapping sound and Sans’ arms appeared from behind the bar. He braced himself and pulled his chin up over the edge.   
“Ah there you are doc. Wondered where you’d disappeared to.”   
“Did you just teleport back there? You could have given Grillbz a heart attack.”   
“Naah it’s fine I teleported into one of the cabinets.”   
“He has heightened senses, he would have heard you.”   
“Oh well, good thing he didn’t. Guess he’s pretty busy?”   
“I guess, I don’t know.”   
“So, what are you doing here? Did Papyrus traumatize you with implications of parental responsibility?”   
“What? No, no! I’m very pleased that he considers me part of the family. I mean, if he meant to do that at all, I don’t know. But, no, I’m not upset, I’m very happy.” Grillbz reappeared carrying a mug. He looked curiously at Sans, and lifted him over the bar by the back of his jacket and set him on a stool.   
“.where’d you come from?here.” he set the mug in front of Gaster, who looked at it curiously.   
“This is tea? I thought you didn’t make tea?”   
“.only for special occasions.”   
“Oh, thank you!”   
“So should I start calling you dad now too?” said Sans.   
“I.. don’t know, would you like to?”   
“Hm. Daddio? Pops? Dadbro? Substitute Begetter?”   
“….” Grillbz looked discouragingly at Sans.   
“I dunno,” Sans continued as Gaster sipped his tea, “I’m kinda used to calling you doc now. But it’s nice having you around.”   
Gaster gave him a bigger smile than Sans felt that that rather lukewarm statement warranted.   
“Thank you!”   
“Don’t mention it, Pops.”   
Sans pulled his phone, which was playing the Imperial March, out of his pocket and answered it:   
“Yeah? No, it’s probably fine. Yeah—why’d you turn the heat up? No, it’s probably fine, just—listen, we’re coming back, I’m sure it’s fine, don’t do anything yet, OK?” He put the phone back in his pocket.   
“Paps is getting really excited about the spaghetti.”   
“.spaghetti?”   
“Yeah we left spaghetti cooking,” said Sans as Gaster quickly choked down the rest of his scalding hot tea.   
“.then what are you doing here?”   
Gaster plunked down his empty mug and stood.   
“Leaving! Thank you so much for the tea it was good.”   
“….I don’t think you gave it a chance to steep.”   
“So does this make you, like, our honorary uncle if Gaster is our unofficial stepdad skeleton and you’re his war friend since forever and, like, definitely basically blood brother which is basically some kind of uncle? And more importantly, will you give me free food?”   
“.no.”   
“Awww. Well, c’mon then, let’s go.”

Sans and Gaster walked back towards their house in the snow, which was falling harder now, flickering in flakes of white across the colored lights of Snowdin. Gaster breathed in deeply and released the breath in a contented sigh. Sans looked sideways at him and chuckled.   
“Daddio.”   
“Where did you even learn that?”   
“Father dear. Dabs. Science Dad. Dadster.”   
“Heh. Sons. Sansational Sonshine.”   
“Ey, nice.”   
They crunched through the snow up to the front door, which opened suddenly.   
“OH GOOD THERE YOU ARE IT’S GETTING PRETTY BENDY I THINK IT MIGHT BE DONE BUT I’M NOT SURE??”   
“It might be, let me check.”   
Gaster went into the kitchen and fished up a strand of spaghetti, Papyrus hanging over his shoulder.   
“Mm. This is still pretty hard.”   
Sans sat on the counter nearby.   
“So if Gaster is our dad now that makes Grillbz some degree of spiritual uncle by the unbreakable bond of warrior companionship right? I’m pretty sure. But apparently that bond is not strong or extensive enough to make him give me free food so eh what does it matter.”   
“OH GOOD, DID YOU TALK ABOUT THAT? SORRY I CALLED YOU DAD.”   
“Are you? I didn’t mind,” said Gaster. Papyrus bounced on his feet.   
“OH! GOOD! BECAUSE YOU’RE KIND OF LIKE A SECOND DAD AND I MIGHT CALL YOU THAT AGAIN SO I’M GLAD YOU’RE OK WITH IT!”   
“I’m very OK with it,” said Gaster, hugging him.   
“Do I get a dad hug too?” said Sans. Papyrus, to Gaster’s surprise, grabbed him and hauled him in between the two of them while still clinging to Gaster.   
“Ah ok what? Hello,” he said, adjusting his position to allow room for the sudden Sans. Sans snickered.   
“Welcome to the family, doc.”

 

**A/N: This is a hypothetical place in the CORE storyline in which Sans has figured out how to teleport at will and safely (after figuring out that -he is able- to teleport in the first place, which is surprisingly difficult due to him, er, not thinking that he can teleport…) and so he’s able to teleport back to Snowdin to spend evenings with Papyrus and teleport back to the lab in the morning, and sometimes brings Gaster along with him and lets him spend the night. We’ll have to see if this actually happens in CORE. It sure hasn’t yet.**

**But, yeah. I’m pretty sure Goshawk-Gyrefalcon knew I had a soft spot for this this when she asked.**

**Oh yeah, the don’t-put-too-much-garlic-in-the-pesto thing is something I learned myself, the hard way, over the summer. My mom decided to have me make pesto alone and it ended up being very overpoweringly garlicky. My tongue was on fire. It was a nice taste but. You know. Not very well balanced.**


End file.
